willtams] NEWBERRY, FONTAINE. 87 



conglomerate, stated that it was the general opinion that the Great 

 Conglomerate (No. xn) at the bottom of the Coal Measures thins out 

 rapidly from a thickness of 1,200 feet at Mauch Chunk to less than 100 

 feet in Wyoming Valley. But he found in Sullivan County a thickness 

 of 400 feet, consisting of two main layers of pebbly rock separated by 

 strata of light brown and greenish sandstones resembling those of the 

 productive Coal Measures. The lower bed is well exposed at Shiner- 

 ville, where it dips 15° S., and again on the south side of Loyal Sock. 

 Farther south are the red, iron-stained shales (No. xi) north of Painter 

 Den Run, and still farther south the sandstone (lower bed) outcropssouth 

 of Bear Swamp Run. The sand rock also occurs at Long Point, where 

 it has a thickness of 190 feet. Close examination of the sand rocks at 

 this point led to the conclusion that they are the same as at Shinerville 

 and Birch Creek, 1 mile distant. 



Mr. J. S. Newberry, 1 in 1871, gave an account of some sections of the 

 lower Coal Measures in Holmes, Tuscarawas, Jefferson, and Columbiana 

 Counties, which in some cases extend down to the Waverly, and show 

 alternations of shale, sandstones, and limestones, with beds of coal. 

 The sections average from 300 to 400 feet in depth, the coal seams indi- 

 vidually rarely more than 4 feet. The coal beds are numbered accord- 

 ing to altitude, from 1 to 7, No. 1 being the lowest, and are described 

 in detail. Coal, No. 6, in Holmes County, is overlaid by a black bitu- 

 minous shale, rich in marine fossils, Ghonetes mesolaba, etc. At the 

 month of the Yellow Creek, Jefferson County, the "Big Vein " of coal 

 is underlaid by 4 inches of cannel, full of the remains of fishes aud 

 Amphibians ; the fishes, species of Coclacanthus and Eurylepis, Palceo- 

 niscus and Rhizodus; the amphibians were aquatic carnivorous sala- 

 manders. 



William M. Fontaine, 2 in 1374, stated that the Great Conglomerate on 

 New River consists of a great formation of sandstones containing im- 

 portant beds of coal, underneath a massive white sandstone, which itself 

 underlies the lowest strata of the Lower Coal series. This formation 

 is considered by William Rogers the equivalent of the Great Conglom- 

 erate, here much expanded, while others hold that it is a great develop- 

 ment of the Lower Coals. To the east it is underlaid by the enormously 

 expanded Subcarbonif'erous group. 



Fontaine gave facts concerning the overlying and underlying for- 

 mations of this peculiar series, beginning at the mouth of the Ka- 

 nawha River where the strata are of Upper Coal series, diminished in 

 thickness. Under these is found the barren upper portion of the Lower 

 Coal series, increased rather than diminished in thickness, developing 

 both to the south and to the northeast. The strata under these barren 



1 Newberry, J. S. : Sketch of the structure of the lower Coal Measures in northeastern Ohio. Geol . 

 Survey Ohio, Report Progress in 1870, pt. 1, pp. 14-53. Columbus, 18*71. 



2 Fontaine, Wra.M.: The "Great Conglomerate" on New River, West Virginia. Am. Jour. Sci., 

 3d ser., vol 7, pp. 459-465, 573-579. 



